Justice Minister in Nigeria disowns laws

LAGOS (Reuter) - Nigeria's Minister of Justice has disowned military government decrees 'which sweep away our liberties' and has threatened to resign.

The laws, which became public knowledge on Tuesday, give military rulers wide powers of arrest in their battle against democracy campaigners and bar any challenge to their actions in the courts.

Olu Onagoruwa, the Justice Minister and Attorney-General, a democracy campaigner himself until he was recruited into the government by General Sanni Aabacha, said yesterday that he had nothing to do with the new decrees.

He said laws were supposed to be made by the Provisional Ruling Council, of which he is a member, and drafted by the Ministry of Justice, but they had not been through these procedures.